


A Chance to Do the Right Thing

by quigonjesus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26352331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quigonjesus/pseuds/quigonjesus
Summary: When given the opportunity to break free from an Empire that continues to turn its back on you, do you take it?Taking one of the cutscenes from the finale of the Imperial Agent story and getting inside Cipher's head.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	A Chance to Do the Right Thing

Their footsteps echoed off the metal floor of the ship as they walked in silence down the corridor. Though her mission against Hunter and the Star Cabal was an unquestioned success, Cipher Nine was no fool. There was a reason the Minister of Intelligence wanted to talk to her alone, and it wasn’t for any routine mission debrief.

They had barely stepped over the threshold into his office before the Minister closed the door and turned to look at her. “Congratulations are due, but if we’re going to track down and eliminate the remaining conspirators, I need their secrets,” he said, infuriatingly straight to the point as always. “Give me the Black Codex data, please.”

 _There it is_. Cipher turned away from him and walked towards the desk, her eyes drifting over the many databanks lining the back wall and feeling the weight of the Black Codex clipped to her belt. Such a small thing to be so valuable. She supposed she should be glad he respected her enough to just ask for it outright, but mostly she was so damn tired of being subject to everyone’s whims. She was done playing these games. “Tell me, Minister,” she replied, her tone deceptively light, still not looking at him. “Why do you really want the Black Codex?”

A pause. Then, quietly: “So for once in my life I can do the right thing.”

Cipher whirled around to face him again, not sure she’d ever heard him say anything so unguarded in her life. The surprise on her face must have been evident (though he’d always had an annoying habit of being able to read her no matter how well she masked) because he continued, he who never bothered to explain more than was absolutely necessary.

“Despite their evils, the Star Cabal did something remarkable. They stayed invisible for centuries, operating independent of the great powers,” his said, brusque and businesslike as always, before darkening his tone. “In my career, I can hardly scratch my nose without being stymied by a Dark Lord.”

Cipher wanted to laugh in his face. _Cute of him to act so put-upon, as if he was the one who got his head scrambled with the Empire’s best brainwashing program,_ she thought resentfully. She wanted to rage at him, scream that he knew nothing of what real powerlessness was like, had never seen his body operate outside his control while his brain screamed from inside a cage. How _dare_ he. For a moment, memories of Taris and Quesh threatened to overwhelm her and Hunter's taunting face swam before her eyes before she took a deep breath and dug her nails into her palms, letting the sting center her back in the here and now. She'd killed that bastard good and dead and now she held all the cards. She wasn’t going to give it up without a fight. “With due respect,” she taunted, flinging their earliest lesson about working with the Sith back at him, “some people might interpret that the wrong way.” _And I’m not taking the fall for you again._

The Minister looked her over, his expression unreadable. “Then let me be perfectly clear,” he responded crisply, in a way that made Cipher instinctively straighten up like a cadet preparing for inspection. Blast it all, there was still a part of her that craved his approval, furious though she was. “The lives I’ve destroyed, the atrocities I’ve approved...all of it was to make the Empire a better place.” He stared at her intently. “I failed. Now I turn to you, and the Black Codex. Imperial Intelligence is not being rebuilt; you need to escape while you have the chance.”

Of all the things she expected him to say, none of them came close to that. In her shock she forgot her anger and blurted out “Escape from what? What’s happening to Intelligence?”

He looked at her almost pityingly. “The Sith have wanted our resources for years. Now that we belong to them, things will change.”

 _Of course. Idiot,_ Cipher chided herself. She knew she was no longer a fresh-faced cadet but it didn’t take cynicism to know how Sith power struggles worked. That was something you learned early in the Empire, or you died. Still...Intelligence was her home, her fellow agents the closest thing she ever had to a family. How could she leave?

 _They shackled you because you did your job too well,_ her treacherous mind reminded her. She'd never had the chance to force the Minister to reckon with that, not with the threat of the Star Cabal so immediate. They'd had to move too fast if Intelligence was to survive, especially once the Watchers were attacked. But the Star Cabal was gone now, effectively destroyed now that she held their only source of real power. There was no way to avoid thinking about the implications. _How long until they do it again? You'll always be under their thumb as long as the Sith see you as a threat._ The Minister had only survived as long as he did by keeping his head down and not giving the Sith any reason to doubt his loyalty, and she held no illusions about whether he'd make the same decision again.

However the Minister wasn’t finished. “The conspirators erased themselves from history. The Black Codex can help you go dark, destroy all records of your identity.” He paused for a moment, giving her time to absorb. “You would answer to no one. Not a new Sith Intellience, not superior officers. You’d serve the Empire as a free agent...and exercise that conscience of yours.”

Her mind was still reeling at the possibilty he was suggesting, and then all she could think about was Watcher Two. “What about the others?” _Perhaps leaving wouldn't be so bad with her by my side_ _,_ she thought daringly. That wouldn't be so terrible. Sure she was still programmed with her Imperial loyalty and Cipher could tell she hadn't fully recovered from the psychic trap Hunter sent, but they could work around it. Perhaps they could...well perhaps they could finally be free of professional constraints. She didn't let herself hope any farther than that.

“With luck I may retire gracefully; without I expect to be hanged,” he responded matter-of-factly. “Either way, the others won’t be blamed for my mistakes. They’ll be your allies on the inside while you operate in the shadows.” He hesitated for a moment, as if choosing his next words carefully. “It’s the best I can offer.”

Cipher remained silent for several long moments, studying the Minister. No doubt he knew exactly who and _what_ she was thinking of and she slammed that door to her heart shut. Regretfully she compartmentalized away the crushing loss of Watcher Two yet again; she'd been a fool to even entertain that hope. She'd mourn it later, in private, but right now she needed no distractions. Frankly, she still wasn't entirely sure that wasn't some elaborate set up to trap her once again. Maybe it was paranoia, but after everything she'd been through she felt it was well-earned. For a moment she assessed him as she would any target, noting expression and body language and gauging it against his words to look for discrepancies or threats. As always he remained frustratingly impassive. 

_You’d answer to no one...and exercise that conscience of yours._ Rage and hope warred within her. How dare he suddenly speak so candidly now, as if he hadn’t signed off on letting the Sith fuck around in her head before throwing her to the Republic wolves. How dare he pretend to care _now_ , how could she trust a word out of his mouth when there was every chance he’d give her back up the second a Sith put pressure on him?

And yet...

It was tempting, so very tempting. The spark of idealism that she thought had been smothered in the records room at headquarters all those long months ago threatened to flare up, warming her like the welcome embrace of an old friend. To finally live life free of the stifling threat of the Sith, to not have to walk the tightrope of their insanity and lust for power where both success and failure spell trouble. Even though she knew she could never forgive the Minister’s betrayal, she also knew deep down the only other option he had was standing aside and allowing her death, that her brainwashing was him protecting her in his own way. Most importantly she knew with fierce clarity that it wasn’t _right_ , it wasn’t right to do her job well and be turned into a slave for her efforts. It was rotten from the top down and the whole bloody Empire could go to hell for all she cared.

Well.

The faces of her fellow agents, of Minder Three, Ensign Temple, and (with a lurch of her heart) Watcher Two, floated across her mind. Good people, trying to do their best despite a system stacked against them. Even the Minister, angry as she still was with him. Despite his carefully neutral expression, she could still see the new lines on his face, how his hair was more white than gray now. The Dark Council and every Sith in the Empire could get bombed into oblivion tomorrow and she wouldn't give a damn, but she couldn't abandon those who had been in the trenches with her, who had risked their lives to try and keep the order and stability that brought her such comfort as a child.

Finally she sighed, exhaling a breath she felt like she’d been holding since discovering Jadus on the Dominator. To hell with it. She was tired of playing by others’ rules, of doing everything right and doing it _well_ but getting punished anyway. The Minister still had a lot to answer for, but he was also right. The system didn’t work anymore, had _never_ worked, and this was her chance to grab freedom to make a change.

Cipher straightened her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “You’re putting an awful lot of trust in me.”

For a split second his face softened and Cipher thought she could see the hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth. “We make do with the resources we have.”

She supposed that was as close to an apology as she would ever receive from the man. Cipher found that she could live with that.

**Author's Note:**

> With how intense the Agent storyline can be (and how many variations on the ending there are) I've always thought it would be a fun excercise to take the cutscenes and rewrite them with my own headcanons and otherwise get inside Cipher's mindset. Thus this drabble was born!


End file.
